policy between them but no coherent policy whatsoever about what to do about the war and didn't mention it. while we have 66,000 americans in that war right now. we have serious things to make serious decisions about as a country. how do we turn down the nonsense enough to hope that our political process can be the means by which we make these grave and serious decisions? joining now is senator jeff merkley of oregon, chief sponsor of the amendment that passed calling on an accelerated withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan. senator merkley, congratulations on the success of that amendment today. >> thank you very much, rachel. it's an incredible amount of things happening around the world today. >> yeah. i feel like this is one of those moments when i have very high hopes and very high wishes for what our political process will be capable of doing, and i have to say, seeing your amendment passed today in such a bipartisan fashion with so much republican support made me have some hope that some of the biggest foreign policy challenges we've got might be tackled in a way that is at l